Will to the living of the land conform.

Above us there are mirrors, Thrones you call them,
From which shines out on us God Judicant,
So that this utterance seems good to us."
Here it was silent, and it had the semblance
Of being turned elsewhither, by the wheel
On which it entered as it was before.
The other joy, already known to me,
Became a thing transplendent in my sight,
As a fine ruby smitten by the sun.
Through joy effulgence is acquired above,

As here a smile; but down below, the shade
Outwardly darkens, as the mind is sad.
"God seeth all things, and in Him, blest spirit,

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Thy sight is," said I," so that never will Of his can possibly from thee be hidden; Thy voice, then, that forever makes the heavens Glad, with the singing of those holy fires Which of their six wings make themselves a cowl, Wherefore does it not satisfy my longings?

Indeed, I would not wait thy questioning If I in thee were as thou art in me." "The greatest of the valleys where the water

Expands itself," forthwith its words began, "That sea excepted which the earth engarlands, Between discordant shores against the sun

Extends so far, that it meridian makes

Where it was wont before to make the horizon.

I was a dweller on that valley's shore

'Twixt Ebro and Magra that with journey short Doth from the Tuscan part the Genoese.

With the same sunset and same sunrise nearly

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Sit Buggia and the city whence I was,

That with its blood once made the harbor hot.

Folco that people called me unto whom

My name was known; and now with me this

heaven

Imprints itself, as I did once with it;

For more the daughter of Belus never burned,
Offending both Sichæus and Creusa,
Than I, so long as it became my locks,
Nor yet that Rodophean, who deluded
Was by Demophoön, nor yet Alcides,
When Iole he in his heart had locked.

Yet here is no repenting, but we smile,

Not at the fault, which comes not back to mind, But at the power which ordered and foresaw. Here we behold the art that doth adorn

With such affection, and the good discover
Whereby the world above turns that below.

But that thou wholly satisfied mayst bear

Thy wishes hence which in this sphere are born, Still farther to proceed behoveth me. Thou fain wouldst know who is within this light That here beside me thus is scintillating, Even as a sunbeam in the limpid water. Then know thou, that within there is at rest Rahab, and being to our order joined, With her in its supremest grade 't is sealed. Into this heaven, where ends the shadowy cone Cast by your world, before all other souls

First of Christ's Triumph was she taken up. Full meet it was to leave her in some heaven, Even as a palm of the high victory

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Which he acquired with one palm and the other, Because she favored the first glorious deed

Of Joshua upon the Holy Land,

That little stirs the memory of the Pope. Thy city, which an offshoot is of him

Who first upon his Maker turned his back, And whose ambition is so sorely wept, Brings forth and scatters the accursed flower

Which both the sheep and lambs hath led astray, Since it has turned the shepherd to a wolf. For this the Evangel and the mighty Doctors Are derelict, and only the Decretals

So studied that it shows upon their margins. On this are Pope and Cardinals intent;

Their meditations reach not Nazareth, There where his pinions Gabriel unfolded; But Vatican and the other parts elect

Of Rome, which have a cemetery been Unto the soldiery that followed Peter, Shall soon be free from the adulterer."

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CANTO X

LOOKING into his Son with all the Love
Which each of them eternally breathes forth,
The primal and unutterable Power
Whate'er before the mind or eye revolves
With so much order made, there can be none
Who this beholds without enjoying it.
Lift up then, Reader, to the lofty wheels
With me thy vision straight unto that part
Where the one motion on the other strikes,
And there begin to contemplate with joy

That Master's art, who in himself so loves it
That never doth his eye depart therefrom.
Behold how from that point goes branching off

The oblique circle, which conveys the planets,
To satisfy the world that calls upon them;
And if their pathway were not thus inflected,
Much virtue in the heavens would be in vain,
And almost every power below here dead.
If from the straight line distant more or less

Were the departure, much would wanting be
Above and underneath of mundane order.
Remain now, Reader, still upon thy bench,

In thought pursuing that which is foretasted, If thou wouldst jocund be instead of weary. I've set before thee; henceforth feed thyself, For to itself diverteth all my care

Line 6. Who this beholds without enjoying Him.

ΙΟ

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That theme whereof I have been made the scribe. The greatest of the ministers of nature,

Who with the power of heaven the world imprints And measures with his light the time for us, With that part which above is called to mind

Conjoined, along the spirals was revolving,
Where each time earlier he presents himself;
And I was with him; but of the ascending

I was not conscious, saving as a man
Of a first thought is conscious ere it come;
And Beatrice, she who is seen to pass

From good to better, and so suddenly
That not by time her action is expressed,
How lucent in herself must she have been!

And what was in the sun, wherein I entered,
Apparent not by color but by light,

I, though I call on genius, art, and practice,
Cannot so tell that it could be imagined;
Believe one can, and let him long to see it.
And if our fantasies too lowly are

For altitude so great, it is no marvel,
Since o'er the sun was never eye could go.
Such in this place was the fourth family

Of the high Father, who forever sates it,
Showing how he breathes forth and how begets.
And Beatrice began: "Give thanks, give thanks
Unto the Sun of Angels, who to this
Sensible one has raised thee by his grace!"
Never was heart of mortal so disposed
To worship, nor to give itself to God
With all its gratitude was it so ready,
As at those words did I myself become;

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